The present invention relates to a ratchet wrench and in particular to an adjustable angle ratchet wrench.
Heretofore, fixed handle ratchet wrenches were developed to facilitate the easy rotation or ratcheting of nuts and bolts. Further to this, straight extensions of different lengths were developed to accommodate hard to reach places. However, at times even this improvement was inadequate for some uses. A ratchet wrench with an adjustable angle handle was then developed. A representation of such is shown in FIG. 5 (U.S. Pat. No. 4,711,145) wherein a toothed portion 72 of the ratchet head 7 engages with a spring-loaded ball 82 and is rotatable about the central axis of the toothed portion. This design could afford different angles to the handle but under load conditions this design has the tendency to easily change angle if the torque is not carefully applied parallel to the plane of the ratchet head. This, usually sudden, change in angle quite often results in injury to the user in the form of cuts, bruises, scrapes etc., and also damage to the nut or bolt that the torque is being applied to.